


Fourteen

by yeaka



Category: Olympus (TV)
Genre: Ficlet, Fix-It, Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-18 18:55:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29123028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeaka/pseuds/yeaka
Summary: Let’s pretend this is the epilogue.
Kudos: 1





	Fourteen

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own Olympus or any of its contents, and I’m not making any money off this.

He’s still crouching over her when the last bit of rubble falls—a small speck of billowing dust that tumbles over his shoulder. He waits for the rest to come, for the stones to crush them, for the ground or scales to give way beneath their feet and plummet them into Hades’ waiting hands. But nothing else comes. The sky’s stopped falling. The floor is firm and steady. The air smells fresh and like new flowers in spring, with a gentle breeze that stirs the Oracle’s dark hair across his cheeks. 

Hero opens his eyes and dares to meet the blinding sunlight. Blinking against it, he withdraws. He’s drawn his sword before he’s even thought of it, pulled and held it ready, though there’s no one left to fight—no one that can be struck down by pure steel. The Oracle straightens up, free of him, and her eyes cast about them like his, taking it all in—taking in the _world_. They’re no longer in the dark cavern of Zeus’ prison, but standing on a bed of grass.

The hill they’re on looks out over the city, what should be rubble, but is once again a glorious construction of wood and stone, sweat and blood, formed by gods and men alike. _Athens stands tall_.

The grass rustles beside them, and Hero turns. A shadow casts over him as Zeus approaches, impossibly tall and wide, infinitely strong, all powerful. He’s staring over the edge at his children below, and when Hero follows that gaze, he sees they are there, dozens, _hundreds_ of them, people scattered about, just still as statues. Minos’ camp is gone, Aegis’ men standing down. It’s Athens as it was before the war reached its peak, or at least, how Hero would’ve imagined it then. 

“I have returned them,” Zeus murmurs. His voice is soft but booming, respectfully lowered though so mighty it makes Hero tremble. The creature that towers over him is nothing like the one trapped in the raven’s claws—Zeus is so much more _glorious_ in freedom. His body glows like the stars, his skin gleaming, his scales reaching off into the woods beyond. “All of them. The people, the gods, my children.”

Hero doesn’t have the words. He can’t imagine it. If the people in Athens have returned, then his mother—

“They’re frozen.” He can’t see any movement—not even dogs or goats. Not even a butterfly.

“They are slow, so slow that they are mere portraits to you, but you will return to them soon enough.”

Daedalus’ words come rushing back. He’s moving at the god’s speed. Then Daedalus is whole too. Medea. Ariadne. All the men Hero cut down with his sword and knife and whip. 

“The gods too are free again,” Zeus continues, though in truth, Hero forgot them the moment humanity came back. That was all he was doing it for. “Our enemies corrupted my children, but there is no need to slay them now. When the enemy chained me, my children rotted without guidance, but my freedom has returned my light, and that has restored all the good there is in this world.”

“Brother!”

The Oracle lurches back, and Hero looks over his shoulder to see a young boy standing there, just out of the forest, familiar but deathly still. The Oracle runs to him, bolting through the flowers into his arms, wrapping him up and holding him tight, though he won’t be able to feel it. Not yet. The Oracle doesn’t seem to care. She’s sobbing freely, more broken even than when Hero put his sword through Minos’ chest. 

“All who fell in this bitter quest are freed from Hades’ pools,” Zeus says, though the Oracle barely seems to hear him. Hero does. Zeus looks at the weeping woman with an expression Hero can’t decipher, then slowly turns to Athens again. “But you must take care, Hero and Oracle, namesakes of my first creations. I will retreat now, and the laws that govern you return; when next you fall, it will be true.”

That’s the moment when Hero realizes it—once, he wouldn’t have cared where or when he fell, because it would have silenced the beast, but now he’s being offered a chance to live and _really will_ , because the beast inside him is _gone._

His hand lifts to his chest. The gaping wound over his heart has healed—it isn’t sore to touch. There’s no malice underneath. All traces of the monster inside him have slithered away. He can breathe. He’s actually, _truly_ free. 

He looks up at Zeus, too awestruck even to be grateful. Zeus is frowning and tells him, quiet like a whisper, “This was not the answer, child. Death and violence was the instrument of the enemy. You live again now, and know what it is to be alive. Do not take that from any other again. In the end, it was staying your sword that changed things.”

Hero opens his mouth. He was wrong. _So wrong_. He had considered killing Zeus, considered hunting all the gods, killed his own father and his lover’s father, slaughtered soldiers whose only crime was loyalty, brought tears to the eyes of his Oracle and shattered friends—

He blinks, understands, and when his eyes open again, Zeus is gone.

The world is moving. A dragonfly flutters past, the breeze stirring the bush it hides in. The city below mills with life, the faint echo of their calls and cries and songs rising up the cliff. The Oracle is still sobbing, and when he turns, he sees her brother hugging her back. 

It’s over.

He doesn’t feel like he won. Doesn’t even feel like a hero. But it’s over, and he’s been given a second chance. Ariadne is out there somewhere, and maybe he can show her how wrong they both were with all the pain they inflicted. Maybe he can earn the Oracle’s forgiveness. He can find Medea and embrace his mother too, meet his brother again, and rule _with_ his family, not against them.

The sword falls from his hands. 

The Oracle turns back and manages a wavering smile. 

Hero weakly returns it, then summons strength and goes to embrace her too.


End file.
